The World I See

In the course of my travels, i've had the good fortune to experience places in the world that are threatened, or have been damaged. This collection are a few of the images that i find to be the most poignant.

On San Cristobal, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, the National Park Service, and the Municipal Police work together to stop animal abuse. Here, Juan, a police officer, holds a mating pair of Darwin's Finches that have been tied with string to keep them from flying off. The male's wings were clipped, but only the male, because the female will not fly away from the male, even to save herself. Juan is dedicated to the animals of Galapagos and his disgust and heartbreak is ever present on his expressive face. The vastly increasing numbers of immigrants (both legal and illegal) to Galapagos is of grave concern to all who care about those islands and the endemic animals that evolved there. This image is, for me, that conflict distilled into one image.